St. Landry democrat., 1887-12-31
PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.
Items Of Interest About People Of Note
in the World.
ICopygiqhted. 1851

the Via Margutta in Rome. Mr.. Benton is
fond of literary subjects, and one of his most
interesting pictures represents on the same
canvas the drowning Of the poet Shelley IN
the Gulf of Specie, his first grave at Via Reg
gio, and his final resting place in the Protest
ant Cemetery at Rome. Another of Mr.. Ben
toms pictures is representation OF old Fort
Dearborn, the original block-house in Chi
cago, which was erected in 1912. The paint
ing is from sketch made in 1856, the year
before the block house was pulled down. 1t
is a striking illustration of the rapid growth
of Chicago, which now numbers nearly
10000 inhabitants, that the old block-house
could in those early days hold the entire
population of the place. Mr.. Benton's paint
ing is the only authentic picture of Fort
Dearborn in existence.
Colonel Richard NJ. Johnston, who has re-
Gently become prominent as Southern
writer, is not one of the younger school. He
Is sixty-fve years old, and was leading
lawyer in Georgia before the civil war. It
was while practicing as lawyer in five or
six adjoining counties that he picked up the
scenes and characters which he has intro
duced in his "Dukesborough Tales" The
Georgia cracker, so humorously portrayed
by him, was a new figure in literature. Col
onel Johnston removed to Baltimore county,
Nd, and opened boarding-school for boys,
soon after the civil war. Of late years, how
ever, he abandoned school teaching, and de-
voted himself exclusively to literary pursuits,
in which he has been very successful.
Mrs. Lew Wallace, wife of the general, is
tall, angular woman, with pale face,
which expresses more intelligence than
beauty. Her residence in the East fur
nished her with the material for very in
teresting book, ''The Stored Sea-" volume
of Oriental sketches, the scenes Of which are
laid on the Mediterranean. The style of the
work is extremely picturesque, and well
adapted to the subject. The author has
caught the sunny glow of the earth and sky
which Is peculiar to the East; in the Ian
guage of an enthusiastic Frenchman, she has
clipped her pen in the colors of the rain
bow, and sprinkled upon her paper the
powder caught from the wings Of the butter
fly"
Edwin de Leon, who was formerly United
States consul general to Egypt, has been en-
de@oring to introduce the telephone into
Turkey. He says the Turks are much in
ferior to the Egyptians in intelligence and
very backward in adopting any modern i'm
provements. As their fathers lived, so they
wish to live. Stagnation, not progress is
the order in Turkey Mr.. de Leon has lived
many years in the East, but he wears mus
tache and sidewhiskers in the style of the
West. His book, 1.-THE Khedives Egypt"
is one Of the most exhaustive and entertain
ing works on that subject that has ever been
written.
Mrs. Margaret J. Preston, the Southern
poetess, whose "Beecher Brook" which was
published in 1868, gave her national repu-
tation, has been afflicted with almost total
blindness. Her beautiful lyric, "Sandring-
ham," drew forth from the Princess of
Wales letter of thanks, and Mr.. Gladstone,
who was at that time premier of England,
abiding to the recovery of the Prince of
Wales, spoke of Mrs. Preston's poem-after
reading it aloud in the House of Commons
as beautiful example of American sym.
pathy on the princes behalf. Mrs. Preston's
husband was the schoolmate of Edgar A. Poe
at Professor Clarke's Academy in 1920.
Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson, whose recent
novel, Under the Rule of Tberius." has
again brought her before the public, has a
charming home in Mobile. The grounds
are beautifully laid out, her garden being
one of the greatest attractions Of the place.
Mrs. Wilson is about fifty years old; her
hair is gray; she is small and slight; her
manners are very cordial, and her face full
of intelligence. She has no children and de-
votes herself to her flowers geraniums being
her special favorites-of which she has the
most complete collection in America.
King George of Greece is the most demo-
cratic sovereign in Europe, sometimes walk
ing about the streets of Athens without any
attendance and dressed as plainly as any
other citizen. He is not very popular among
his subjects, because the national pride of
the Greeks resents the fact of foreigner
ruling over them. His eldest son, Constan-
tine, will be more popular king, and the
enthusiastic Greeks look forward to the time
when Constantinople will be the capital of a
new Grecian empire of the East.
Mary Anderson was once asked by Ten
nyson whether she had ever met Mrs. Bur-
nett. The actress said she could not re-
member, but thought she had. Where
upon the poet requested her to tell Mrs.
Burnett that in his opinion certain passage
in Through One Administration was the
finest piece of English he had ever read Miss
Anderson promised, and when she returned
to America she sent the message to Mrs. Bur-
nett, but forgot the particular passage which
Tennyson admired
Labouchere, the editor of Truth, has led
life of strange vicissitudes. When young
man he came to America, and while hunting
buffalo on the prairie he saw in an old news
paper that he had been appointed an attache
to the British embassy at Washington.
After year sresidence in that city his rowing
disposition took him backto England, where
he married an actress, started Truth, and
became one of the most radical Of the radical
leaders in England. STYLUS.
An Incredulous Texan.
Texan, in New York for the first time
I've been up in Central Park looking at the
animals.
Hotel Clerk-Well, what do you think
of 'em?
Texan-Humph. They can't fool me if I
am from Texas.
NWhat do YOU mean ~